"Sure, then, you'll not be goin', b'y?"

"I don't know as anybody'll go," said he. "Looks a bit too nasty for
'em."

Nevertheless, Ezekiel put some pork and hard-bread in his dunny bag,
and made ready his gaff and tow-lines, lest, by chance, the weather
should promise fair at midnight.

"Where's that young scamp?" said Ezekiel, with a smile--a smile which
expressed a fine, indulgent affection.

"Now, I wonder where he is?" said Ruth, pausing in her work. "He've
been gone more'n an hour, sure."

"Leave un bide where he is so long as he likes," said he. "Sure he
must be havin' a bit o' sport. 'Twill do un good."

Ezekiel sat down by the fire and dozed. From time to time he went to
the door to watch the weather. From time to time Aunt Ruth listened
for the footfalls of Bagg coming up the path. After a long time she
put her work away. The moon was shining through a mist; so she sat at
the window, for from there she could see the boy when he rounded the
turn to the path. She wished he would come home.

"I'll go down t' Topsail's t' see what's t' be done about the seals,"
said Ezekiel.

"Keep a lookout for the b'y," said she.

Ezekiel was back in half an hour. "Topsail's gone t' bed," said he.
"Sure, no one's goin' out the night. The wind's hauled round t' the
west, an' 'twill blow a gale afore mornin'. The ice is movin' out slow
a'ready. Be that lad out yet?"

"Yes, b'y," said Ruth, anxiously. "I wisht he'd come home."

"I--I--wisht he would," said Ezekiel.

Ruth went to the door and called Bagg by name.

But there was no answer.

* * * * *

Offshore, four miles offshore, Bagg was footing it for England as fast
as his skinny little legs would carry him. The way was hard--a
winding, uneven path over the pack. It led round clumpers, over ridges
which were hard to scale, and across broad, slippery pans. The frost
had glued every fragment to its neighbour; for the moment the pack
formed one solid mass, continuous and at rest, but the connection
between its parts was of the slenderest, needing only a change of the
wind or the ground swell of the sea to break it everywhere.

The moon was up. It was half obscured by a haze which was driving out
from the shore, to which quarter the wind had now fairly veered. The
wind was rising--coming in gusts, in which, soon, flakes of snow
appeared. But there was light enough to keep to the general direction
out from the coast, and